2.28.2011

My Saturday was spent with a house full of little girls squealing and laughing as they got their fingernails painted and had facials made from plain yogurt and avocado (that was hilarious, by the way!)

The Princess turned 8 years old this weekend, and for her party, we decided that it would be fun to do a Spa theme.

I previously posted about the invitations which were fashioned to look like sleeping masks. If you'd like to read more about how I made them click here.

The color scheme was basically a dark tealish-turquoise blue and hot pink...with some lighter pink and black thrown in for good measure.

To make the table look festive, I put out some of the Spa fixin's. On one small serving tray I placed mini bottles of fingernail polish in hot pink and blue. The girls got to pick a bottle which we used to paint their nails...and then which became part of their take-home goodie bags.

I also had a tray full of temporary tattoos which I made using my Silhouette Digital Cutter (did you know they have printable tattoo paper?) I used their software to create an image of a "spa girl" complete with a green-tinted facemask and cucumbers on her eyes. Then I printed them out on the tattoo paper and followed the directions to add the adhesive. The girls loved them!

I laid out the goodie bags which were filled with toe separators in hot pink (of course!), pretty emory boards, fruit flavored lip gloss, and the fingernail polish the girls chose. I couldn't find the exact bags I was looking for, until I ran across this little tutorial at Jones Design Company (complete with the striped paper to print out.) I made the bags, and then just added the cute little "Thanks for Coming" tags which I made using my Silhouette (again....that little thing is quite useful, I'll tell ya!)

Finally, the cupcakes. You know I can't resist cupcakes! I found some darling cupcake papers at Michael's Craft in the colors we were using. The Princess requested chocolate (she is her mother's daughter after all). I just topped them with cream cheese frosting and hot pink or blue sprinkles. I love the way they turned out.

Hanging from the chandelier are a bunch of a mini tissue pom poms to add a festive touch.

And just for good measure...a photo of the princess covered in her avocado & yogurt facial. (She's gonna love me for this.)

And finally, Remodeling Twin Cities shared a great bathroom makeover. You know I'm a sucker for beadboard wainscotting. This before and after is FAB!

Now it's your turn...

You know "da rules"...

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2.23.2011

See, it's a pun because I made a Silhouette with my Silhouette. Punny, huh? Okay, enough of my lame-o humor. You'll have to forgive me cuz I found my first gray hair today, and I'm in mourning, so my sense of humor is off.

No really, I screamed when I found it...nearly gave the poor hubby a heart attack. He didn't get what I was all worked up about. See, the hubby started going gray in his twenties. But me? Until today, I prided myself that I've made it to the age of 30 without any gray hair...okay, okay, you caught me...I'm not 30...I'm 38...but that's even better, no gray hair. Until today that is. Darn it all.

But I digress. Where was I again? Oh yeah, silhouettes.

A while ago I saw these darling vases in the Ballards Catalog. Love them. And since my little DIY-loving self gets a thrill out of doing cost-next-to-nothing knock-offs, I just had to share with you what I made.

The former inhabitants of this house left us a storage room brimming with canning jars. So I went down to said storage room and dug up a couple of pretty ones that didn't have embossing on them.

Then using my Silhouette Digital Cutter I cut out a Silhouette using their Frosted Vinyl, which I then place on one of the jars.

Of course, after I removed the Silhouette and the oval ring I was left with a pretty reverse silhouette, which I then placed on the other jar. (Waste not, want not.)

I really like the way they turned out. Not quite as elegant as the Ballard's version. But cute nonetheless...and my version was FREE people. Can't beat that.

If you want to make some of these yourself, the good people of Silhouette are offering a fabulous deal right now...

I decided to accessorize specifically for Spring. I love the lighter colors!

I wanted to add some cherry blossoms. Of course, since we're still under about 8" of snow, we didn't have any yet (even though we have a cherry tree in our backyard.) So I used a couple of faux branches - available at Tai Pan Wholesale - which I placed in my pretty vintage canning jar.

I decided not to tweak the lamp (yet anyway) but I switched it to the other side of the table which sets off the lampshade a little more.

To the bottom shelf I added a darling chicken wire birdcage and my vintage scale.

Then I finished the whole thing off with some pretty plates. A plate collage above the buffet on the wall, and a pretty square plate with a spring green motif sitting on the table top.

The whole thing is bright and spring-y and makes me happy to see.

I decided that I will most likely switch things off for the seasons...I already have ideas brewing for a different set of plates for the summer. Afterall, I do suffer from Design ADD. But for now, I love how I brightened up this little corner.

2.21.2011

Happy President's Day everyone! I've got a fun giveaway for you today from one of my fabulous sponsors, Timeless Settings!

Timeless Settings is a fun online shop that is the perfect place to find unique home decor items at reasonable prices. They have a great selection of fun accents for your home and garden that are sure to appeal to you, my lovely readers! I love this wooden box...it would make a great silverware caddy for a casual outdoor dinner. (Still wishing for warmer weather around here.) This pretty green trellis-pattern tray is a fun way to brighten up your kitchen!

Ooh la la! I adore this french script table runner. What a pretty addition to any dining table!

If you love vintage as much as I do, you'll appreciate this chicken wire milk bottle caddy...complete with the bottles.

I also have a bit of an infatuation with mercury glass...so I love the selection of votive holders.

Or these pretty skeleton keys...what a lovely accent these would make!
Donna from Timeless Settings has generously offered to give one reader of The Shabby Nest a $50 gift certificate to use in her shop. And with such reasonable prices, $50 will get you a long way toward beautifying your home!
Here's the deal....
Hop over and check out Donna's shop, then leave me a comment telling me one or two of your favorite items. That's it.
If you tweet, facebook or blog about the giveaway, I'll give you an extra entry for each, but only if you leave me a comment for each. (I use Random.org to pick giveaway winners, so I need individual comments for each entry.)
The giveaway will be open until Friday at 11:59 pm MST.
Good luck!

This post was sponsored by Timeless Settings. The opinions expressed are 100% mine.

1. Please link directly to your post and not just to your blog.2. PLEASE LINK BACK TO THE SHABBY NEST.3. Please visit links and leave comments for the authors.

I reserve the right to remove posts that are not in keeping with the spirit of Frugal Fridays including but not limited to those posts that link to your shop, those posts that link to a giveaway or linky party, or those posts that don't link back to The Shabby Nest. Let's all play fair, mkay?

It's a big birthday for the Princess this year. She's turning 8! To celebrate we decided to throw a Spa party. We're going to have a whole gaggle of little girls over to be pampered...facial masks, painted nails, the works!

Of course, every great party starts with a great invitation. And since I was making the invitations anyway...the blogger in me decided to photograph the process so that I can give you all a tutorial on how to make cute Spa Birthday party invitations. You know, just in case you should ever be throwing a Spa party. ;-)

These invitations were adapted from some I found on Martha Stewart.com... because I believe in giving credit where credit is due.

First up: The Supplies

You will need:

colored cardstock - now, I just happened upon some cute oval notecards at Target that I knew would make my life easier for this project. They were just the right size, in the right colors, and they included envelopes. So I bought two packages.

stick glue - my glue of choice when doing paper crafting.

scallop edge scissors

regular scissors

ribbon

Next: The Process:

1. The first thing I did was cut out a template. I should probably have done this using printer paper or something. But because I trust too much in my mad skills, I just started cutting one of the notecards. Then I ended up having to fold it in half to get it even, so I couldn't use it. Luckily, I had more cards than I needed, but HELLO?

2. Then I traced the template onto the other cards. You will trace as many as the number of invitations you are going to make. (makes sense, right?)

3. Cut out all the pieces you just traced. Since you probably wont be using notecards like I did, you will also want to cut rectangular pieces of cardstock in a coordinating color that are big enough to glue the cut pieces on and still have a border around the edge.

4. Now cut lengths of ribbon. I cut them long enough so that they could actually tie around a person's head. Of course you can cut them shorter if you so choose...just make sure that they are long enough to fit across the width of your sleepmask and still have ribbon dangling on both sides.

5. Using the stick glue, cover the back of your cut pieces entirely, then put a stripe of glue across the approximate center of your rectangle (remember I'm using the oval notecards...that's why there's no rectangle pictured). Lay the ribbon across the stripe of glue and then place the cut piece over the top.

6. Now using your scallop edge scissors, cut the rectangular piece to the same shape as the cut piece leaving approximately 1/4 inch showing.

2.15.2011

Yesterday I shared with you step 1 in my plan to lighten and brighten this little corner of our dining area. Today we're moving on from the lamp to the little buffet it sits on.

This buffet was pretty in black, but it sucked up all the light in that corner of the room, and with our large chalkboard on the adjacent wall...there was altogether too much black going on over there.

I had been thinking and thinking about what color to paint this buffet, but I was coming up dry. That is until we painted the pretty blue dresser for the living room. "Aha!" thought I. Blue is the answer. Now lest you think that I am going to have painted-blue-furniture overkill going on in my house...let me just say that the rooms are adjacent, but the pieces are far enough from one another that they just help to carry a color scheme from room to room rather than seeming matchy-matchy.

So I painted the little buffet Cafe Blue by Valspar in semi-gloss. I. love. it.

There are about 124802384092809482340 tutorials on how to paint furniture floating around cyberspace...and since I don't claim to be an expert on the matter, I'm not going to add another one. I will give you a couple of pointers that I've learned along the way, however.

1. Primer is your friend! As you can see, I took this piece from a darker color to a lighter color. To make the transition easier, I started off with a coat of Kilz primer. The blue paint took much easier this way, and I only needed 2 coats. (If you've ever tried to paint over black, you'll know that 2 coats doesn't usually work.)

2. NEVER accessorize a piece of furniture until it has had a full 24 (and usually more like 48) hours to cure and dry. You will inevitably have a patch of paint that peels up if you do. Even if you used primer. It always makes me wonder when I watch those one-day makeover shows where they paint the walls and the furniture and then accessorize everything. I'm sure the homeowners end up having to do a lot of touch-ups after that!

3. Don't be afraid to try a color. If you don't like it, you can always repaint. That's the beauty of paint!

So here is the space as it stands now. I've given you a little run down of my plans.

Looking at this photo with my plans all spelled out on it, I wanted to share a little more "wisdom" (if you can consider me wise.) So here's another little something to keep in mind. Don't worry if your original plan has to be altered a bit. I say that I will "most likely" put plates on the wall. And I "most likely" will. But that could change. Sometimes things can work on paper, and then when you see them in real life, you realize that it just doesn't look the way you thought it would. And that's part of the fun of designing. Letting the space be your guide. Go in with a plan, but don't be glued to it. And then you'll end up with a space you really love.

I'm hoping to get to the accessorizing step this week...so look for Part 3 to come soon.

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